Bark is effectively the skin of the tree and it overlays the wood. The bark itself has inner and outer layers, in older stems the inner bark is living tissue while the outer bark is dead tissue. Knowing this has made me look at trees a little more closely. I have always loved bark. It’s not just the visual appearance of texture, but there is something so tactile about it which makes me want to touch it even though it is usually rough and scratchy. Perhaps the needing to touch thing is connected to the skin thing: the need to touch the skin of your partner, your relative, your friend, is a way of giving and receiving comfort.

Like skin, bark can reheal itself but often with a scar or callus growth over the injured site. So no matter what nature throws at trees – frost, sun, snow, flood – they can recover.  5 to remember
la corteza – the bark [of tree]
eficazmente – effectively
interior – inner
exterior – outer
el tallo – the stem